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Griffith 
The  great  torch  race 


i 


THE  GREAT  TORCH  RACE 


An  Address  Delivered  at  the  Dedication  of 
The  Wrenn  Library 


By 

REGINALD  HARVEY    GRIFFITH,   Ph.D. 

Professor  of  English  and  Curator  of  the  Wrenn  Library 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  TEXAS 

AUSTIN 


.HZ733 


A  FOREWORD 


In  the  Christmas  holidays  of  1917,  Professor  Griffith  visited 
Chicago  for  the  especial  object  of  examining  certain  rare  books 
by  Alexander  Pope  in  the  library  of  the  late  Mr.  John  H.  Wrenn. 
He  learned  that  the  books,  a  portion  of  Mr.  Wrenn's  estate,  were 
to  be  sold,  and  that  if,  by  the  terms  of  the  sale,  the  books  could 
be  held  in  tact  in  a  university  library,  the  heirs  of  Mr.  Wrenn 
would  contribute  a  noteworthy  portion  of  the  estimated  price. 

Returning  to  Austin,  Professor  Griffith  placed  the  matter  be- 
fore President  Vinson,  and  enthusiastically  urged  that  the  Uni- 
versity of  Texas  acquire  the  collection.  The  President  next 
morning  laid  the  matter  in  his  turn  with  enthusiasm  and  dis- 
patch before  the  attention  of  Major  George  W.  Littlefield,  a 
member  of  the  Board  of  Regents.  The  Major's  reply  was: 
"If  the  library  is  as  desirable  as  you  say,  we  will  have  to  find  the 
money."  An  investigation  of  the  worth  of  the  library,  super- 
vised by  Mr.  W.  H.  Burgess,  a  former  Regent  then  resident  in 
Chicago,  was  entirely  satisfactory;  and  Major  Littlefield  gave 
his  personal  check  to  President  Vinson  to  conclude  the  sale 
with. 

The  books,  approximately  6,000  in  number,  were  boxed 
under  the  care  of  Mr.  Harold  B.  Wrenn,  son  of  the  collector, 
who  came  to  Austin  and  himself  placed  them  on  the  shelves  in 
a  room  specially  and  beautifully  fitted  for  their  home. 

The  Wrenn  room  was  opened  for  public  use  in  June,  1919; 
but  the  books  were  not  formally  dedicated  to  the  service  of  the 
University  until  March  26,  1920.  The  dedication  ceremony 
was  held  on  the  campus,  in  the  shade  of  the  Education  Building, 
which  flanks  the  Library  Building.  The  Librarian,  Mr.  Good- 
win, presented  to  the  audience  President  Vinson,  who  told  the 
story  of  how  the  Wrenn  Library  came  to  Texas  and  of  what  it 
will  mean  to  the  University.  Mr.  Wroe,  representing  Major 
Littlefield,  who  was  ill  at  the  time,  spoke  of  the  donor's  happi- 


691265 


ness  in  adding  this  to  his  other  benefactions  to  the  University; 
and  Major  Richard  F.  Burgess,  representing  his  brother,  who 
was  unable  to  be  present,  spoke  of  Mr.  Burgess's  belief  in  the 
greatness  of  the  Library  and  his  pleasure  in  being  associated 
with  its  coming  to  the  University  of  Texas.  The  dedicatory 
address  was  delivered  by  Professor  Griffith,  Professor  of  Eng- 
lish and  Curator  of  the  Wrenn  Library. 

More  recently  the  Catalogue  of  the  Wrenn  Library  has  been 
distributed.  It  is  the  gift  of  Mr.  George  W.  Brackenridge,  and 
is  a  privately  issued  set  of  five  volumes  of  about  300  pages 
per  volume,  prepared  by  Mr.  Harold  B.  Wrenn  and  Mr.  Thomas 
J.  Wise  and  printed  in  England  upon  hand-made  Whatman 
paper.  Only  1 2 1  sets  of  the  Catalogue  have  been  printed  and 
they  are  for  presentation  to  the  prominent  libraries  of  the  world. 


THE  GREAT  TORCH  RACE 


THE  GREAT  TORCH  RACE 

IF  I  had  ingenuity  enough,  I  should  try  this  afternoon  to  put 
together  for  you  an  account  of  the  contents  of  the  Wrenn 
Library.  The  task  is  impossible,  and  any  attempt  would  be 
unendurably  cataloguy  and  dry.  In  its  stead,  you  are  cordially 
invited  to  visit  the  Library,  which  is  open  daily  from  nme  to  five, 
when  Miss  Ratchford  or  I  will  gladly  outline  for  you  what  is 
there,  with  the  books  before  your  eyes. 

Let  me  ask  you  now  to  give  your  imagination  play,  and  build 
before  your  mind's  eye  a  picture,  which  I  shall  call  The  Great 
Torch  Race.  Let  me  sketch  in  three  panels  of  it — something 
concerning  the  founders  of  libraries,  something  of  the  greatness 
of  books,  something  of  the  place  and  opportunity  of  Texas;  — 
and  you,  if  you  please,  in  your  imagination  build  the  rest  of  the 
picture. 

The  ancient  Greeks  had  an  athletic  contest  which  they 
called  a  torch  race.  Each  contestant  carried  a  torch,  and  the 
winner  was  the  first  to  reach  the  goal  with  his  torch  still  alight. 
A  variation  of  the  game  was  the  relay  race,  in  which  a  compan- 
ion seized  the  lighted  torch  from  the  spent  runner  and  continued 
the  race.  This  ancient  game  has  more  than  once  done  serv- 
ice as  a  figure  of  speech  to  symbolize  the  progress  of  civili- 
zation through  the  world's  history.  In  the  great  march  up- 
ward from  the  night  of  ignorance,  the  leaders  of  men  have 
been  thought  of  as  each  lighting  a  torch,  carrying  it  high  in 
life,  and  at  death  entrusting  it  to  the  hands  of  a  younger 
companion,  to  be  borne  by  successive  hands  forever  onward 
towards  the  goal.  Such  leaders  have  been  many — as  num- 
berless as  are  ideas  among  men.  And  their  torches  in  the 
pageant  have  flamed  with  colors  innumerable. 

It  is  of  only  a  very  few  such  bearers  of  torches  in  the  great 


and  lucent  race  that  I  ask  you  to  allow  me  to  speak — especially 
of  book-collectors,  founders  of  libraries. 

The  library  at  Oxford  University  boasts  two  very  early 
friends.  But  their  benefactions,  alas!  perished  in  the  savagery 
of  subsequent  wars.  Richard  de  Bury  was  the  author  of  the 
PHILOBIBLON,  the  "Book  Lover."  His  ambition  was  to  assure 
assistance  to  the  whole  University  out  of  his  books.  He  provided 
the  ordinary  texts  and  commentaries  for  the  students,  and  was 
extremely  anxious  that  they  should  be  instructed  in  Greek  and 
the  languages  of  the  East.  Rules  for  the  use  of  the  books  were 
strict.  A  raw  student,  he  said,  would  treat  a  book  as  roughly  as 
if  it  were  a  pair  of  shoes,  would  stick  in  straws  to  keep  his  place, 
and  would  very  likely  eat  fruit  or  cheese  over  one  page  and  set  a 
cup  of  ale  on  the  other,  or  impudently  scribble  across  the  text, 
or  try  his  pen  on  a  blank  space;  "and  all  these  negligences,'  he 
adds,  "are  wonderfully  injurious  to  books." 

Duke  Humphrey,  third  son  of  King  Henry  IV  and  brother  to 
King  Henry  V,  Falstaff's  "Prince  Hal,"  is  often  spoken  of  as  the 
founder  of  the  library.  His  whole  family  cared  for  books,  and 
were  generous  to  the  University,  but  Humphrey,  called  the  Good 
Duke  Humphrey,  was  especially  so.  His  gifts  were  acknowl- 
edged to  be  "an  almost  unspeakable  blessing."  When  his  books 
arrived,  "the  general  joy  knew  no  bounds";  and  the  name 
"Duke  Humphrey's  Library  "  was  given  to  the  general  assem- 
blage of  the  University's  books. 

Sir  Thomas  Bodley  did  more  than  either  or  both  of  these.  He 
won  a  great  reputation  as  an  ambassador,  and  Queen  Elizabeth 
would  gladly  have  retained  him  in  political  service.  But  in  1 597 
he  had  grown  weary  of  affairs  of  state.  He  determined  then  to 
give  his  means  and  himself  for  the  rest  of  his  life  to  the  service 
of  books.  He  would  make  the  library  at  Oxford  one  of  the 
world's  greatest.  Here  are  his  own  quaint  words:  "I  con- 
cluded at  the  last  to  set  up  my  staff  at  the  library  door  in  Oxon. 
I  found  myself  furnished  with  such  four  kinds  of  aids  as,  unless 
I  had  them  all,  I  had  no  hope  of  success.  For  without  some  kind 
of  knowledge,  without  some  purse-ability  to  go  through  with  the 
charge,  without  good  store  of  friends  to  further  the  design,  and 
without  specicJ  good  leisure  to  follow  such  a  work,  it  could  not 


but  have  proved  a  vain  attempt."  He  supplied  funds  and  had 
agents  buying  books  in  all  parts  of  Europe.  He  refitted  the  cham- 
ber for  the  library,  supplying  cases  and  tables  and  chains — he 
w^as  extraordinarily  careful  about  the  chains,  with  which  the 
books  were  chained  to  the  shelves.  His  enthusiasm  was  so  great 
that  friends  were  glad  to  assist  him  with  gifts  of  precious  vol- 
umes. From  his  home  county  of  Devon,  Dudley  Carleton  wrote 
in  a  gossipy  letter:  "Every  man  bethinks  himself  how  by  some 
good  book  or  other  he  may  be  written  in  the  scroll  of  the  bene- 
factors." When  King  James  I  visited  Bodley  at  the  library,  he 
said:  "If  I  were  not  a  King  1  would  be  an  University-man,  and 
if  it  were  so  that  1  must  be  a  prisoner  I  would  desne  no  other 
durance  than  to  be  chained  in  that  library  with  so  many  noble 
authors."  Sir  Thomas  lived  and  wrought  on  till  1613.  The 
wonderful  library,  the  Bodleian,  exists  at  Oxford  now;  and  to 
this  time  the  University  offers  public  thanks  for  Bodley's  gener- 
osity yearly  upon  his  calendar-day. 

The  greatness  of  the  library  at  Cambridge  University  dates 
from  the  year  1715,  when  Dr.  Richard  Bentiey,  greatest  of  all 
English  scholars,  prevailed  upon  King  George  I  to  donate  to 
Cambridge,  at  a  cost  of  6,000  guineas  (equivalent  to  about 
$300,000  now),  the  books  of  Bishop  Moore  of  the  diocese  of 
Ely.  Bishop  Burnet  writes  that  the  hbrary  was  a  treasure  be- 
yond what  any  one  would  think  the  lite  and  labor  of  a  man 
could  compass. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  collections  at  Ccimbridge  is  the 
gift  of  Samuel  Pepys.  Of  the  garrulous  Pepys  it  is  hard  to  say 
whether  he  will  live  longest  because  he  wrote  the  most  delight- 
ful diary  in  the  world,  or  because  he  was  founder  of  the  British 
navy,  the  wall  first  of  wood,  now  of  steel,  around  the  liberties  of 
England,  or  because  he  collected  books.  His  penchant  was  for 
plays,  street-ballads,  and  the  ephemeral  literature  of  his  day. 
He  willed  his  books  to  Magdalene  College,  Cambridge,  and  there 
they  are  now,  in  the  same  cases  that  stood  in  Pepys's  own  home 
and  placed  on  the  shelves  in  the  very  order  he  himself  chose,  the 
tall  books  at  the  back  showing  over  the  tops  of  the  small  books 
in  front.  He  made  a  catalogue,  which  he  called  "titleing"  his 
volumes.     One  of  the  pleasant  pictures  of  the  DIARY  is  of  how 


he  himself,  and  the  very  young  and  pretty  Mistress  Pepys,  and 
Deb  Willett,  the  young  serving-maid  (also  pretty,  he  naively 
relates)  were  busy  one  evening  until  midnight  "titleing"  the 
books. 

Robert  Harley,  Earl  of  Oxford,  and  intimate  friend  of  Pope 
and  Swift  and  Prior,  was  a  prince  among  collectors.  The  Harleian 
library  contained  50,000  books,  a  huge  body  of  manuscripts, 
and  an  incredible  number  of  pamphlets.  Dr.  Johnson  has  de- 
scribed the  contents.  The  Earl  had  the  rarest  books  of  all 
countries,  languages,  and  sciences;  thousands  of  fragments, 
some  a  thousand  years  old ;  vellum  books ;  a  great  collection  of 
Bibles,  and  editions  of  all  the  first  printed  books,  classics  and 
those  of  English  writers  printed  by  Caxton,  Wynkyn  de  Worde, 
Pynson,  Berthelet,  Rastell,  and  Grafton;  and  the  greatest  num- 
ber of  pamphlets  and  English  portraits  of  any  other  person; 
original  letters  of  eminent  persons  as  many  as  would  fill  200 
volumes;  all  the  collections  of  Humphrey  Wanley,  Stow,  Sir 
Simonds  D'Ewes,  Prynne,  Bishop  Stillingfleet,  John  Bagford,  Le 
Neve,  and  the  flower  of  a  hundred  other  libraries.  Most  of  the 
library  was  scattered.  But  the  manuscripts  were  purchased  by 
the  nation  in  1753;  and  they,  with  the  scientific  collection  and 
the  books  of  Dr.  Hans  Sloane,  bought  at  the  same  tin^.e,  were 
the  beginning  of  the  British  Museum. 

Book  collecting  might  well  seem  to  be  one  of  the  best  guar- 
antees of  long  life,  for  most  collectors  have  lived  to  a  ripe  old 
age.  Better  still,  it  may  be  said  of  them  as  a  class  what  Dr. 
Johnson  said  of  one  of  them:  He  lived  more  in  the  broad  sun 
of  life  than  any  other  man  1  ever  knew.  But  doubtless  the  found- 
ers who  have  left  libraries  to  be  sources  of  knowledge  and  wis- 
dom and  joy  to  after-comers  will  rejoice  most  in  the  ineffable 
pleasure  they  bestow.  The  eminent  scholar  Heinsius  said, 
when  entering  the  library  at  the  University  of  Leyden:  "In  the 
very  bosom  of  eternity  among  all  these  illustrious  souls  I  take 
my  seat." 

What  are  the  books  to  be  desired  for  a  library?  First,  of 
course,  those  the  world  generally  agrees  upon  as  its  great  books. 
Is  there  any  underlying  principle,  any  quality  shared  in  common 
by  them?    Here  is  a  partial  answer  for  consideration. 


Humanity  thinks  most  highly  of  those  men  who  give  the 
best  reasons  for  thinking  highly  of  humanity.  The  human  race 
wishes  to  believe  in  itself — in  its  own  dignity,  worth,  and  impor- 
tance. The  thinker  who  bears  credible  testimony  to  such  worth 
is  acclaimed.  And  those  authors  are  reckoned  greatest  whose 
testimony  does  most  to  convince  us  of  the  superlative  impor- 
tance of  man. 

Test  this  answer  for  a  few  moments. 

The  Bible  let  us  put  aside,  for  it  is  the  thinking  of  a  people, 
not  of  one  man ;  and  by  most  Christians  it  is  held  to  be  of  divine 
origin,  not  human.  The  sum  of  its  whole  message,  however,  is 
the  worth  and  eternal  importance  of  every  individual  soul. 

Homer  writes  of  the  ten-years  war  that  racked  Greece  and 
ruined  Troy,  of  the  passions  and  ambitions,  the  greatness  and 
littleness  of  man.  He  tells  of  the  deities  who  left  high  Olympus 
to  come  down  and  help  in  the  battle  of  man.  You  do  not  be- 
lieve in  those  gods  and  goddesses.  Perhaps  Homer  himself  did 
not  wholly  believe  in  them.  Yet  they  represented  to  him  and 
to  the  listeners  to  his  story  the  highest  forces  they  could  con- 
ceive in  the  whole  realm  of  the  universe.  If,  then,  these  greatest 
of  all  forces  assisted  m  the  affairs  of  men,  some  on  the  one  side, 
some  on  the  other,  how  great,  how  important,  how  dignified 
and  worthy  must  Man  be ! 

Dante  journeyed  through  hell  and  purgatory  and  heaven, 
seeing  in  those  vast  confines  the  fates  of  men.  For  him  they  rep- 
resented all  that  is  at  all  after  the  end  of  this  short  life.  But 
Eternal  Might  and  Love  created  these  regions  for  men's  souls. 
How  great,  then,  how  worthy  the  souls  of  men ! 

Shakespeare  presents  his  evidence  of  the  majesty,  the  ex- 
cellence, and  the  weakness  too  of  man  in  a  different  way.  He 
conceives  of  the  passions  of  men, — the  fears,  hates,  jealousies, 
envies,  the  loyalties,  self-sacrifices,  loves, — on  an  enormous 
scale,  tempestuous,  mountainous,  and  puts  them  in  movement 
within  the  soul  of  man.  Like  a  tropical  storm  they  pass  through. 
How  immense  in  its  capacity  for  suffering,  for  joy,  is  the  soul  in 
which  such  forces  have  room  to  move!  And  then,  wonderful 
to  contemplate!  at  the  end  of  each  great  play,  when  the  storm 


has  blown  upon  and  dissipated  the  miasmas  of  a  sick  and  stag- 
nant moral  atmosphere,  the  great  dramatist  shows  the  breaking 
through  of  a  sweetness  of  light,  Hke  a  sunset,  giving  promise  of  a 
fairer  day  to  follow,  when  justice  and  right  shall  more  nearly  rule 
the  world  so  late  disturbed.  Do  we  believe  him?  Does  not  his 
evidence  persuade  us  to  a  belief  in  the  worth  and  dignity  of  the 
humcui  soul? 

Milton  tells  the  story  of  the  Loss  of  Eden  and  the  conse- 
quent sin  and  sickness  and  evil  besetting  us  all  around.  You 
may  not  believe  in  the  dire  dungeons  ot  darkness  made  visible 
that  he  paints,  or  in  the  conclaves  of  fallen  angels,  or  the  other 
means  by  which  he  weaves  his  ideas  into  a  story.  But  here  is 
the  heart  and  core  of  his  conception.  He  thinks  of  God  and  his 
angels  as  embodying  the  infinite  forces  of  Good,  and  Satan  and 
his  cohorts  as  embodying,  personifying,  the  infinite  forces  of 
Evil.  These  infinite  forces  are  in  constant  conflict.  And  the 
reward  of  victory  in  the  ever-renewed  battle  is  the  soul  of 
Adam,  the  soul  of  every  man,  your  soul,  my  soul.  But  not  alone 
is  man's  soul  the  reward,  the  guerdon  of  this  battle ;  each  indi- 
viducil  soul  is  the  battle  ground  where  the  contest  is  fought  out. 
If,  then,  each  soul  is  both  ground  of  battle  between  the  greatest 
thinkable  forces  in  the  universe,  and  the  prize  of  victory,  how 
worthy,  how  dignified,  how  great  that  soul  must  be ! 

You  nor  cuiy  other  person  will  cavil  at  the  gathering  together 
of  the  great  books.  But  some  may  ask.  Why  add  the  books  of 
little  men,  the  more  commonplace  writers?  Such  persons  are 
not  so  thorough-goingly  drastic  as  the  Caliph  Omar,  who  de- 
stroyed the  library  of  Alexandria,  reasoning  thus:  If  the  books 
here  agree  with  the  Koran,  they  are  useless,  and  should  be  de- 
stroyed; if  they  disagree,  they  are  wicked  and  ought  to  be  de- 
stroyed. No, — but  still, — Why  the  lesser  authors?  whose 
books  have  not  been  reprinted  and  consequently  can  be  come  at 
only  in  the  great  libraries?  To  understand  the  world,  to  know 
ourselves,  we  need  the  lesser  as  well  as  the  greater  ones.  By  as 
much  as  the  great  man  has  personality,  individuality,  genius,  by 
so  much  does  he  rise  above  the  general  level  and  fail  to  repre- 
sent the  average  man.    The  eighteenth  century  discovered  the 


common  man.  Out  of  the  throes  of  its  revolutions  democracy 
was  born.  And  democracy  is  today  the  world's  great  throbbing 
YES  to  the  ancient  question,  Am  I  my  brother's  keeper?  In  this 
brotherhood  of  man,  which  lifts  all  men  up,  not  drags  any  down, 
how  can  one  keep  his  brother  or  be  kept,  except  he  knows  the 
moods,  the  thoughts,  the  needs,  the  weakness,  the  latent  great- 
ness too  in  the  commonalty,  in  the  hearts  of  common  men ! 

The  ideal  library  should  have  Terence's  words  for  its  motto: 
Nothing  that  concerns  men  is  alien  to  me. 

Now  a  library  is  not  all  of  a  university.  Far  from  it !  Yet 
the  library,  and  the  use  made  of  it — the  study  of  the  thoughts 
and  habits  and  deeds  of  men,  of  the  spirits  of  nations,  of  the  soul 
of  man — are  the  surest  index  to  the  excellence  of  the  institution. 

What  of  Texas?  What  have  we?  How  do  we  compare  with 
others?  What  is  fitting  and  becoming?  What  may  we  expect 
and  try  to  have? 

We  are  not  without  our  torch-bearers,  our  own  helpful  col- 
lectors. Written  in  "the  scroll  of  the  benefactors  "  are  names 
you  are  familiar  with:  the  picturesque  Sir  Swante  Palm,  whose 
name  is  on  many  a  book  housed  here  behind  us;  and  Ashbel 
Smith;  Miss  Florence  Brooke;  and  Henry  P.  Hilliard,  who  has 
done  much  for  our  collection  of  Southern  authors.  Major  Little- 
field  has  given  with  both  hands,  so  to  speak.  His  is  the  "purse- 
ability"  that  is  enabling  his  "good  store  of  friends,"  Professors 
Barker  and  Ramsdell  and  Mr.  Winkler,  to  gather  the  Southern 
historical  collection,  which  is  remarkable  now  and  which  prom- 
ises to  be  marvelous  later.  That  is  his  left  hand.  With  his  other 
hcmd  he  has  presented  to  us  the  Wrenn  Library  of  English  and 
American  literature  from  1500  to  1900, — a  collection  of  rare 
and  beautiful  and  great  books  which  I  know  several  other  uni- 
versities strove  hard  to  secure,  but  which,  thanks  to  the  gener- 
osity of  Major  Littlefield,  we  have.  In  the  two  years  since  its 
purchase,  its  worth  in  mere  dollars  has  increased,  I  believe,  to 
more  than  three  times  the  purchase  price.  It  is  a  superb  do- 
nation, one  whose  value  will  go  on  increasing.  Three  hundred 
years  from  now  the  gift  will  still  be  lauded  as  an  "unspeak- 
able benefit,"    Men  are  not  numerous  ever  who  possess  both  the 


great  wealth  and  the  imaginative  vision  to  give  so  nobly  and  so 
well.  To  us  of  the  present  the  gift  is  most  grateful.  It  heartens 
us.  Doubtless  we  need  criticism.  Assuredly  we  have  had  it. 
Even  the  criticism  of  ignorance  and  of  malice  is  not  without  its 
value.  But  approbation  IS  cheering,  welcome  as  sunshine  in 
winter.  And  he  who  extends  a  hand  to  help,  wins  our  love  and 
admiration. 

The  state  by  legislative  appropriation  has  not  been  ungen- 
erous. Funds  supplied  by  it,  expended  as  judiciously  as  they 
have  been,  would  have  provided  a  library  to  compare  favorably 
with  other  Southern  libraries — in  Georgia,  Kentucky,  North 
Carolina,  Virginia.  But  with  the  additions  from  individual  citi- 
zens our  library  is  placed  far  in  advance  of  any  other  Southern 
library. 

Let  me  narrow  the  basis  of  comparison.  It  is  not  quite  fair 
to  do  so.  It  shows  us  perhaps  fairer  and  brighter  than  we  really 
are.  Take,  however,  one  group  of  books  as  an  index  of  the 
rest,  and  discount  the  comparison  as  you  may  please — the  books 
printed  in  England  up  to  the  year  1 640.  This  group  includes 
Elizabethan  literature.  Rich  as  the  Wrenn  Library  is  in  these 
books,  it  is  nevertheless  still  richer  in  the  books  of  later  years. 
On  Tuesday  of  this  week  I  received  a  letter  from  the  man  in  the 
best  position  to  make  comparisons.  This  is  the  sum  of  what  he 
says:  You  fall  considerably  behind  Yale  and  Harvard,  but  are 
a  good  deal  ahead  of  the  universities  of  Michigan,  Minnesota, 
California,  Chicago,  Wellesley,  Oberlin,  and  Vassar;  in  some 
respects  you  are  the  equal  of,  in  some  fall  behind,  Columbia. 
The  Huntington  Library  of  California,  not  a  college  library 
at  all,  is  in  these  books  far  superior  to  any  other  library  what- 
ever in  America. 

The  East — Harvard  and  Yale  considerably  ahead  of  us.  The 
V^est — California  far  ahead  of  us.  Now  complete  the  geograph- 
ical triangle — the  South.  Texas  leads  and  represents  the  South. 
The  South  asks  no  man's  pity.  Yet  she  was  maimed,  and  has 
been  lame  in  the  running.  For  long  she  has  had  to  send  the 
flower  of  her  youth  from  home  for  the  needed  higher  learning. 
Of  late  she  begins  to  come  more  into  her  own.     Now  one  of  her 


sons  gives  into  the  hands  of  Texas  as  a  trustee  a  treasure  for  the 
use  and  enrichment  of  all  her  sons  and  daughters. 

When  I  sit  in  the  Wrenn  Library,  I,  too,  feel  as  did  old  Hein- 
sius:  "In  the  very  bosom  of  Eternity  among  all  these  illustrious 
souls  I  take  my  seat.  '  Ihere  is  magic  there  and  high  romance. 
To  hold  in  your  hand  the  very  book  that  once  belonged  to  f^n 
Jonson,  see  his  name  written  by  his  own  pen,  in  his  own  ink; 
or  a  book  that  Locke  owned;  or  a  manuscript  of  Izaak  Walton, 
or  Charlotte  Bronte,  or  Edgar  Allan  Poel  Ihere  is  beauty 
there.  Many  a  binder  has  strained  his  art  to  clothe  beautifully 
the  body  of  a  great  thought.  And  there  is  adventure  there,  the 
greatest  of  all  adventures — the  discovering  of  something  new, 
unknown  before  to  the  world.  Already  scholars  have  begun 
to  seek  us  out.     And  they  will  come  more  and  more. 

Today  we  dedicate  the  Wrenn  Library — this  place  of  beauty, 
of  romance,  of  adventure.  And  we  dedicate  it  to  the  increase 
of  knowledge,  to  research,  the  finest  adventure,  the  discoveiy 
of  things  new  among  men. 

Am  I  too  ambitious  when  I  say  that  in  this  matter  of  books, 
as  in  all  other  matters,  I  want  Texas  to  be  as  good  as  the  best  ? 

What  is  Texas?  One  hundred  years  ago  Stephen  F,  Austin 
founded  the  colony  in  a  wilderness.  Last  year  the  state  paid  into 
the  national  treasury  in  income  and  excess-profits  taxes — just 
these  two  items  alone — the  sum  of  62  millions  of  dollars.  A  ter- 
ritory stretching  from  El  Paso  to  Texarkana,  from  Colorado  to 
the  Gulf,  imperial  in  its  vastness.  A  population  of  five  million 
souls,  where  fifty  millions  yet  will  be.  A  soil  and  a  sun  pouring 
wealth  lavishly  into  the  lap  of  its  citizenry.  A  people  that  is  fitted 
to  be  and  of  right  ought  to  be  a  leader  among  nations !  Can  you 
not  see  the  state  as  a  young  giant,  lithe  and  strong,  deep-chested, 
shaking  his  shoulders  and  girding  himself  for  his  part  in  the  race 
of  the  ages !      A  state  and  a  people  to  rejoice  in,  to  be  proud  of ! 

Hither  from  all  quarters  of  the  commonwealth,  from  all  parts 
of  this  Texas  of  our  loyalty  and  pride,  come  the  sons  and  daugh- 
ters of  the  people.    Come  hither  to  the  University  in  their  youth 


to  learn  the  best  answer  they  may  to  the  question,  What  is  the 
meaning  of  this  life?  Why  is  it  given  to  us?  What  shall  we  do 
with  it,  make  of  it? 

They  are  the  chosen  spirits.  They  are  the  master  minds. 
Not  the  least  among  them  but  shall  be  a  leader  in  his  community 
in  subsequent  years.  Hither  they  come,  and  at  the  altar  of  Alma 
Mater  light  and  trim  their  torches  and  prepare  to  run  their  part 
in  the  Great  Race.  They  come  hither  to  the  University  as  to  a 
city  that  is  set  on  a  hill  and  cannot  be  hid;  to  the  University, 
whose  function,  whose  life  is  to  find  more  of  light,  to  spread 
among  men  the  light  which  shall  light  the  world  onward;  to  the 
University,  which  must  and  shall  be  both  prepared  and  deter- 
mined to  encourage,  to  cheer  onward,  to  help  forward  and  up- 
ward those  who  are  "enflcimed  with  the  study  of  learning  and 
the  admiration  of  virtue;  who  are  stirred  up  with  high  hopes  of 
living  to  be  brave  men  and  worthy  patriots,  dear  to  God  and 
famous  to  all  ages." 

But  a  race  for  the  mere  running  profits  nothing.  No  race 
without  its  gocd  1  And  this,  the  Great  Torch  Race  up  from  the 
blackness  ot  the  night  of  ignorance — what  is  its  goal?  What  is 
it  but  enlightenment?  Enlightenment,  which  is  Truth — that 
Truth  which  shall  make  us  free.  "The  first  creature  of  God,  in 
the  work  of  days,  was  the  light  of  the  sense;  the  last  was  the 
light  of  reason.  First  he  breathed  light  upon  the  face  of  matter ; 
then  he  breathed  light  into  the  face  of  man;  and  still  he 
breatheth  and  inspireth  light  into  the  face  of  his  chosen." 

His  "Chosen!"  And  may  we  not  be  his  chosen  if  we  so 
choose? 

"Breatheth  and  inspireth  light." 

Light! 

If  you  will  take  a  beam  of  sunlight  and  cause  it  to  fall  upon 
a  prism,  you  will  have  a  very  beautiful  effect.  The  one  ray  will 
become  a  ribbon  cross-banded  with — not  white  light  any  more, 
but  all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow.  White  light,  then,  contains 
within  itself,  or  better  still  is  composed  of,  all  these  colors,  from 
violet  through  all  shades  to  red.  For  these  separate  colors  re- 
combined  make  white  light  again — the  perfect  light. 


In  the  Great  Torch  Race  must  be  bearers  of  torches  burning 
with  all  colors,  not  the  great  primary  colors  alone,  but  all  the  in- 
finite gradations  between  them  in  the  scale,  and  above  and  be- 
low them.  Men  are  the  bearers;  the  torches  themselves  are 
ideas.  All  the  inventions  we  now  have,  all  the  discoveries  that 
have  been  made,  all  the  ideas  we  p>ossess,  all  phases  of  knowl- 
edge, and  all  improvements  upon  them  were  once  new,  were 
born  in  some  human  brain,  and,  like  torches  passed  from  hand 
to  hand,  have  been  scattered  aunong  men.  Saturn  is  fabled  to 
have  invented  agriculture,  and  Cadmus  the  alphabet.  Prome- 
theus was  bringer  of  fire.  Watts,  Stephenson,  Fulton,  Morse, 
Bell,  have  curtailed  space.  Marconi  puts  a  girdle  around  the 
earth  more  speedily  than  Puck  in  the  play.  Philosophers,  musi- 
cians, poets,  actors,  prophets,  discoverers,  inventors,  novelists, 
men  who  set  law  or  government  or  business  in  a  better  way, 
each  cmd  all  contribute  a  color  or  shade  or  tint  to  the  sum  of  the 
whole. 

When  time  shall  come  to  its  end,  far  yonder  in  the  future, 
when  the  race  shall  have  been  run  and  the  goal  reached,  and 
the  number  of  torches  shall  be  fulfilled,  then  the  flames,  the  col- 
ors of  all  the  torches  that  humanity  carries,  shall  blend;  and 
from  them  shall  leap,  shall  be  born,  single  and  undivided,  the 
white  light  of  truth.  In  that  day,  when  days  shall  cease  and  time 
shall  be  no  more,  then  Man,  freed  from  the  shadows  of  dark- 
ness, bathed  in  beams  of  ineffable  light,  shall  see  God,  whose 
dwelling  from  eternity  to  eternity  is  Light.  In  that  Splendor  may 
it  not  be  found  that  we  have  lagged  in  the  running,  have  left  to 
any  other  hands  the  torches  we  might  have  borne. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


Form  L9-50m-ll, '50 (2554)444 


THE  LIBRARY 

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